Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Running As Pilgrimage

My girlfriend Corle, is writing an essay for school about Ultrarunning as a means for re-engagement with the land through the lens of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage can be distinguished from travel by including the following phases: hearing the call; preparation; separation; liminal or transitional; threshold; incorporation; and then integration. These phases speak to the journey as having an intimate and deep connecting with Self, but also as service to others. The re-engagement aspect of the essay is to explore healing the land, and societal ecopsychy, through ultrarunning. If this sounds at all intriguing and you would like to be interviewed for her essay, please contact her at: corlel@students.naropa.edu. It'd just be a few short email questions and she'd be excited to have some broader input, beyond just me and a few of my local friends.

6 comments:

Corle should contact ultrarunner and college professor Andy Roth. He is at the University of Arizona and has written quite a bit on running as a "secular pilgrimage" I can get her his email address if she wants it. Andy has paced both Ian Torrence and I in many 100 mile races over the years so we have had plenty of time to explore this topic

What role does compassion play in your running (with yourself; your body; the earth; and others)?

Do you consider running to be a spiritual practice?

Has running changed, or does it inform, the way you consume?

Do you feel running, especially ultra-running, has a role in reconnecting people with the environment- both inner and outer. If so, please explain?

Do you see it as a viable means for healing for not just you as a runner but for your community?

What does a race symbolize to you?

Does the symbolism shift with each race?

What have you learned from racing?

Is there anything else you would like to touch on which I haven't (this can include teachings you have received from running; running as a metaphor; the pilgrimage of running; and anything this brings up for you)?

Would you like to touch on the phases of pilgrimage, or rites of passage, as they apply to a racing or running. They include the following: hearing the call (or longing); preparation; separation;liminal or transitional; threshold; incorporation; and then integration.

Thank you so much for filling out this questionnaire. I think Geoff may have misled you by saying that there were only a few.:)

I would be happy to be interviewed for your essay. I wrote a piece for Ultrarunning magazine about running as pligrimage based on my experience of the Headlands 100. It no longer seems to be available at the Ultrarunning.com website, but it's also up on my personal blog here:http://neurotransmission.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/one-hundred-miles-in-head-land-running-the-headlands-100-ultramarathon/